I'll readily admit that I'm not in the target audience for the new SlotRadio MP3 player from SanDisk, which became available last week.
The $99 device comes with a microSD card containing 1,000 songs, selected by Billboard editors from top-charting radio hits of the last 40 years or so, arranged in seven playlists--rock, country, hip-hop, and four others.
You can't edit or rearrange the playlists, you can't move the songs to your computer or any other device, and the only way to get new songs is by buying new 1,000-song cards for $39.99 apiece.
For a music control freak like me--I used to be the jerk at parties who'd secretly rifle through the host's CD collection looking for something I liked more than what was playing--turning my audio programming over to somebody else isn't easy.
There's a wee tiny rock band in there, and they're playing my favorite Steely Dan song.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)But I got a chance to play with the SlotRadio today, and there's something refreshing about its simplicity. I took it out of the box while sitting on the bus and was listening to music in less than 30 seconds.
There's no software to install, no USB cable to plug in, no CDs to rip, and no need for the instruction booklet. It's an MP3 player for people who don't know what MP3s are--and don't really care--but just want to rock out to some good tunes without carrying their entire CD collection around in their car.
While I agree with CNET's Jasmine France that the sound quality is only mediocre, the bigger problem is the mainstream, middle-of-the-road selections chosen by Billboard.
SanDisk had to start somewhere, and Billboard is one of the biggest names in the biz, but each playlist sounded like a heavily audience-tested radio station programmed by some anonymous machine in a building in New York. That is fine...but if I wanted the risk-averse sensation of radio, I'd just turn on the player's built-in radio. I ended up using the skip button quite a bit.
As I said when I first heard about SanDisk's SlotMusic strategy, the format will succeed only if SanDisk quickly signs up some more eclectic curators. I'd gladly pay $40 for 1,000 blues songs curated by Buddy Guy, or 1,000 reggae and dub tunes collected by KEXP's Kid Hops, or the top 1,000 songs of the year as chosen by the editors of Pitchfork.
Better yet, what if SanDisk teamed up with Pandora? The target audiences seem almost identical: music lovers who can't find a radio station that matches their taste, and don't have the time or motivation to hunt down and buy (or steal) a lot of music themselves.
Users could order customized cards based on their musical profiles or Pandora stations. They'd have to be created on demand, which would be more costly than mass-producing the same card thousands of times, but Pandora already has the algorithms and infrastructure to create customized radio stations on the fly, so how much more expensive could it be to rip 1,000 songs onto a microSD card?
Anyway, SlotRadio is an odd but interesting little device, and I hope that SanDisk gives it the chance it deserves by branching out into the niche markets in which music lives today.
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Falling somewhere between the Discman and most standard MP3 players is SanDisk's $20 Sansa slotMusic Player, an extremely basic device that works much like the original Walkman. The music media is strictly removable, songs play in album order, the battery is alkaline, and no computer is required to use it--but the player is much smaller and music playback requires no moving parts.
This week, Donald and Jasmine make a valiant-yet-stumbling attempt to explain LaLa's new music service.
Also on tap: SanDisk's cheap new music player made especially for slotMusic albums, super sweet earphones from Klipsch, and a grab bag of MP3 players with ultralong-lasting batteries.
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Following the announcement that SanDisk will attempt a renaissance of physical music media in the form of slotMusic MicroSD cards, the company is set to release an ultracheap Sansa MP3 player made specifically for the new album format. Dubbed the SanDisk Sansa slotMusic Player (creative, eh?), the device will sell for $19.99 and is possibly the simplest MP3 player I've laid hands on. There are virtually no features, no screen, and no internal memory. Simply pop a slotMusic card into the MicroSD slot on the left edge of the unit, plug the included headphones into the standard jack on the right edge, and hit play. Songs play in album order; you can pause playback and skip through tracks using buttons on the bottom of the device, and, of course, there are volume controls (by the headphone jack), but that about sums up the player's capabilities.
The Sansa slotMusic Player will come in white originally, with different faceplates available going forward.
(Credit: SanDisk)In fact, you don't even need a computer to use the Sansa slotMusic Player, and the package doesn't include a USB cable--there's no syncing port on the device anyway. Instead, SanDisk includes a USB adapter that can be plugged into the computer for transferring content directly to and from the card, and rather than having a built-in rechargeable cell, the unit is powered by a single AAA battery (rated for 15 hours), which is concealed beneath a removable faceplate that wraps around the player. (SanDisk plans to sell a variety of these "shells" in the future.) Although the device has a hefty and durable feel, it's relatively compact at 2.7 inches wide, 1.4 inches tall, and 0.6 inch deep. Put simply, this is SanDisk's digital answer to the original Walkman or the more recent Discman, without the heft or the skipping. And while the product model doesn't appeal to me or many other tech-savvy MP3 player owners, it could be just the transitional device needed to push feet-dragging friends or family into the MP3 age. (It's only 20 bucks, after all.)
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